The rivers and lakes of the Norfolk Broads were formed thousands of years ago,
the result of digging up peat, when peat was used as fuel.

People have been coming to the Norfolk Broads for years, since 1800BC.
The visitors book is testament to this,
newcomers recorded on the museum's timeline.

First the Celts, Romans and then the Danes.

Then much later, the likes of us, the 'holiday visitor',
beginning their invasions around 160 years ago.

Our invasion only lasted a week,
aboard a cruiser,

with all mod cons.

Gas hob, shower and toilet on board.

Toilets designed especially for boats,

with clear and considerate instructions for their use.

With the help of the museum phrase book,
we learnt a few words in the local language.

Not sure if it'll catch on.
Will my kids tell me I'm 'biggoty'?
Whilst I reply, 'that's a load of 'squit!'
Actually, I like the sound of that.
'Squit!'.

We checked out the local wildlife.

(On another day, we saw three huge Cranes at Horsey Mere.)

We felt a little sorry for this mole,

as 640 of his friends were used to make this mole skin coat.

Blame Queen Alexandra,
who in the early twentieth century made wearing mole fur popular.
However, it provided jobs,
mole catchers were paid 3d a day plus the skins.

More appropriated wildlife.
Porcupine quills to make fishing floats.

We were intrigued as to where these porcupine quills came from
as they are not a native species, to either the Norfolk Broads or the UK.

As with every holiday, there are always the opportunities to collect mementos.
Souvenirs.

Like brochures,

boat flags.

models,

and photos.

At this point, I have to give a huge shout out to the Museum of the Broads.
From what I saw, nearly every object in their collection, had been saved, collected, preserved, built, conserved, restored and donated by volunteers and local families.
Local history treasured and preserved.

Over 40 volunteers staff and maintain the museum.
As a volunteer, if you're really lucky, you get to pilot their steam launch, the Falcon,
which runs on the hour between 11am and 3pm on the River Ant.
Details on their website here.

This was a summer family holiday on the Norfolk Broads.
Imagine coming in winter and getting to use an 'ice yacht'?

About Me

I have written this blog in order to share my experiences of visiting museums, galleries and heritage sites with my family & friends. After going to museums and galleries, I often come home wanting to tell the stories about what I have seen to family and friends to encourage them to visit too. This blog allows me to do that. I thought that perhaps there are others who might be interested and be inspired to visit too. My approach is to talk about the objects, the art-e-facts, rather than the museums and galleries in general. Stories about, and visitor responses to objects fascinate me. These stories may be told by the museums themselves, the people I visit with or, on some occasions, other visitors. I am at IOE doing a PhD researching family/intergenerational learning in museums and galleries. This blog will generally be London-centric as I live and study here, but I try to visit other places when I’m visiting family & friends around the country. If you can recommend museums, galleries or heritage sites, please get in touch. kalston18@gmail.com.